There may be many potential platforms for each of us. The context of leadership is determined by which platforms we take an active role in. The context of our leadership differs with each of the platforms that we take. This is where our individual priorities will show. What we value as a person is where we will choose to lead, and seek platforms to do so.

The context of where you lead determines much of how you interact with the platform and the people you are attempting to lead. Below are a few of the more popular context that we see.

• Family Leadership.
• Church or Ministry Leadership.
• Educational Leadership.
• Military Leadership.
• Political Leadership.
• Moral Leadership.
• Business Leadership.
• Spiritual Leadership.

As we set our priorities in our daily lives we (meaning those of us who desire to lead) will take active roles leading in the most important areas of our world. This is not a time to disparage those who are active in a different context but find our own context and then pursue it.  Choosing the contexts that you would like to pursue will also be highly impacted by your personality and your talents. A quite reserved person may not be looking for a context or platform where they are in front of people on a regular basis. Pursue growing as a leader, your contexts might change but with each attempt you will grow and be more effective.

Conclusion

It may be difficult to define leadership; I suggest that it is just as difficult to explain. I understand that this does not answer all the questions nor does it explain every aspect of what a leader does. I have made an attempt according to how I understand leadership as I continually pursue to be a better leader. I hope that it challenges some and entices others to continue in your journey of leadership.

There are many times when, in discussion, you will hear someone refer to another as a leader. While being a leader may be a quality that we admire we need to understand that because someone may have BE a leader it does not necessitate that at that very moment they are practicing leadership. There are many times in my life when I would consider myself a leader but I was only one of many. For example, during my time in Boot Camp for the Marines, I was a leader and given the opportunity to lead I took it, but on many occasions I was just getting yelled at or sitting in a chair leading absolutely nothing.

The capacity to lead or the willingness to lead to not necessarily mean I am doing so. When looking at leadership we must realize that without opportunities for leadership we are just willing participants, who may even have the capacity, but are waiting to get in the game.

Opportunities can be presented to you as platforms or can be created by our own initiative.

Presented platforms gain you positional opportunities for leading others. These are the opportunity that just about everyone has, whether they take them seriously or not. Some common platforms…

• Being a Husband. You are in a position to lead your spouse.
• Being a Parent. You have the position to lead your children.
• Being an Employer or Supervisor. You have the position to lead your employees or subordinates.
• Being a Teacher. You have the position to lead your students.
• Being a Coach or Captain of the team. You have the position to lead your team.
• Being the President. You have the position to lead a nation.
• Being the Pastor. You have the position to lead a church.

Created platforms are the ones that we see as vacant, stand up, and lead under our own compelling. We can be compelled by our desire to help, our desire to fix, or our own frustration with what we see. Some examples are…

• The guy who wants to lead his friends and steps up to do it without being chosen.
• The person who in the middle of a fire alarm stands up on a table and gives direction in chaos.
• The older, wiser woman who in a town meeting sees the division beginning and quietly gives direction to bring unity.
• The woman who is tired of waiting for a man to take office that will not abuse its power but serve the people then steps up and puts her own name in to make the difference.
• The young man on the football team who sees his teammates, including the captain, heads hanging low and gathers them together to rally the team and attempt to turn this thing around.
• The young woman who in a tough time after losing her mother becomes the mother to her younger siblings because someone has to.

If you notice the created platforms are created in times of adversity. That is because adversity gives way to greatness. True leaders, when adversity strikes are compelled by their own capacity to lead. This is where I would say that, for many leaders, the act of leading in adversity is a moral issue. If I see the pain and hurt and do not attempt to right it or mend it in some way, I will not be able to sleep peaceably tonight.

Whether you currently hold opportunities of presented or created platforms you need to recognize what opportunities you hold because they will determine your context of leadership. We will look at the differing contexts next week.

What is leadership? I believe that each leader will wrestle with this question, and should, as it will help them focus their energy and time as they pursue leadership. However, my goal here is to explain how leadership operates. So for our purposes here I will simply state that leadership is intentional influence. As we will discuss what your goals are and where you are will highly impact what your intentions are but none the less your influence must be intentional.

No matter where you are and what you are doing as a leader you will have concern, or should have concern with a few basics that are consistent across the leadership realm. I would like to list a few of them and quickly elaborate on them as this will be helpful.

Moral North. This is the fact that every leader is trying to do the right thing. Understand that this is not discussing what the right thing is or from where we gain the standard for what is right. For many this just comes from within and they set their own standard others may look to religion or the laws of society. This is merely the fact that each person has a moral compass and as leaders we are compelled to try and follow it.
Communication. All leaders aim to communicate to those that they are leading. Some will choose to communicate through speeches, the written word, video, or any other opportunity. The point here is that leaders recognize that communication is vital to success. Whether it is to communicate to gain trust or for propaganda, communication is vital.
Vision. When someone has the foresight to see the possibilities in front of them are then in a position to achieve them. Quite simple really, you either can see things or you can’t. However this is definitely something that is inherently strong in some but can be developed in others. Without vision you will have no idea where to take people, this will parallel a mass of people wondering around the wilderness following a leader who has no idea of which way is out. It is true – without vision the people perish.

These few are at the core of every leadership training that is out there. I hope you consider giving some attention to each of these and spend some time with honest and critical evaluation.

In a day when “definition of leadership” brings you north of 2,350,000 results on Google, it can be noted that we have yet to agree on one definition. I am not setting out to define it but explain it.

The reason that we cannot agree on one definition is that we experience it so differently. While there are basic principles that are consistent in leadership there are many that we attribute to its nature that are not consistent with every leader in history. Through my consistent reading and attempts to be the best leader I can be wherever I find myself, I have found that there is a simple way that we can narrow the scope of our leadership.

This will give us the ability narrow our focus and multiply our influence. While the journey of leadership is often appealing to so many of us, we must not overlook the structure. The structure is what gives us the patterns and parameters to know when we are in our niche or overstepping our bounds. To do this we need to search out a few things, each of which may take us in a different direction.

• The Consistent Basics of Leadership
• The Opportunities for Leadership
• The Context of Leadership

We will take a look at each one briefly over the next few weeks. I hope you will stay with us.